We have heard of instances where people are unaware of insurance covers held by their parents, and therefore fail to claim them after their passing. Since no claim is made on the death of the policyholder, the funds remain with the insurance company. It is possible to claim these amounts at a later date, through the following steps.

What qualifies as an unclaimed amount?

Unclaimed amounts include amount payable to policyholder as death claim, maturity claim, survival benefits, premium due for refund, or any such amount remaining unclaimed beyond six months from the due date for settlement of the claim amount.

Online search

Insurance companies provide a facility on their website to search for unclaimed insurance amounts. A few basic details about the insurance policy or the holder have to be keyed in to search the database for any unpaid claim with that company.

Details

The online search facility requires the name and date of birth of the policyholder to be entered for information retrieval. If possible, the policy number and PAN should also be furnished.

Submission

After submitting the mandatory details, if there is a match, the policy number (if not furnished already) is displayed. The insurance company then asks for bank account details of the insured or the proposer, along with proof of bank account (cancelled cheque). For of a term policy, the bank details of the nominee are sought.

Payment

On submission of bank account details, the payment due to the insured is transfered directly to the bank account of the insured or nominee through NEFT, RTGS or IMPS.

Only unclaimed amounts of over `1,000 are displayed on insurance company websites.

Providing the date of birth and name of the policyholder is compulsory for the search, the rest of the data is optional.

Information on unpaid amounts is published by insurance companies on a half-yearly basis.